Selling parents' house - how much to expect?'

phoebe1989seb

Hi all,

I have POA for my elderly parents - mum with Alzheimers' - and DH & I are assisting them sell their home on the South Coast in order for them to downsize closer to us.

We put their house - a 1930s 3 bed semi with shared drive and single garage - on the market a month ago. The house (1100 sq ft) is in a good state of repair, if a little old fashioned, with wood-effect UPVC double glazing, 1980s Magnet pine kitchen, wet room (no bath) fitted in 2006, small sun room extension and good size front and rear gardens. The three beds are ok sizes, with bed 1 being a large double, bed 2 an ok double and bed 3 a single. There are two separate loos - one up, one down. Others in the road have extended into the loft and further at the rear. It is in an area popular with families both young and old.

There are no other houses for sale in the road and based upon the most recent sale prices we put it on at £265k with a view to achieving at least £240k, but aware that no offers would be above the SDT.

There have been around seven viewings since it went on the market. Last Monday we received an offer of £250k from a buy-to-let investor who was looking to possibly eventually live in it as a family home. After two days they withdrew their offer as they discovered it would not be possible to put in a dropped kerb, the distance required by the local council being slightly deeper than the space available at the front of the property.

Today we received an offer from another party - nothing to sell, small mortgage required - of £230k. The EA had apparently already declined an offer of £225k from this party who only viewed this morning.

We declined the £230k as we were hoping to achieve closer to £240k.

The most recent sales in my parents' road are as follows -

1) £240k Oct 2010 (in need of total refurb)

2) £242,500 Feb 2010 (previously tenanted, so bit of a state)

3) £220k Nov 2008 (in need of total refurb)

4) £280k Feb 2007 (Refurbed, but not extended at all)

None of these had been extended at all - not even a sun room/conservatory - and the most recent three were all in a similar/far worse condition than my parents' house. My parents' is in move-in/do work as and when condition - apart from ripping up the expensive if rather 1980/90s carpets, lol!

There was recently an extended (ground floor to provide large family room/kitchen) house on tne market at £335k but this was withdrawn.

Really I was just wondering what we should be hoping/expecting to achieve?

Before anyone asks, I don't want to post a RM link as it's not my house - hope you appreciate this

Thanks in advance x

somethingcorporate

Did your EA decline an offer before it got to you? I believe this may be illegal, they have a legal obligation to pass ALL offers on to you.

No-one here is going to be able to give an accurate estimate, yourself and local estate agents have best chance of giving a reliable estimate. I would guess somewhere between £230k and £250k but it's just my opinion.

McKneff

If your parents are ailing, to be quite honest, I would just take the 230K and theres an end to it.

No one knows what is going to happen, (fortuately) but life is too short and I'm sure your parents wuold be wanting to spend what time they have left closer to you.

To put it into perspective, my brother was diagnosed with dementia at the early age of 49 ish, it was very aggressive and he was dead by the tim he was 51 ish, so it all depends on what you/your parents want to do to be honest.

PasturesNew

Take the £230k, let your parents get on with their lives. Once sold, the money can be invested and there won't be any maintenance/security to worry about - and you can spend all your spare time as quality time with them.

What do I know about it .....? I sold my parents house 3 months ago.

DiscoCat54

Hi Phoebe1989seb. My parents are in exactly the same situation. Mum with altzheimers and Dad trying to sell their home so that they can downsize and move close to my sister. For the sake of 10k below the price that you had hoped to achieve I would take it. House selling is stressful enough without the risk that should you pass it up you might have to wait months for another offer.

somethingcorporate

I'd agree with the above, life is too short to worry about £10k if it is having a detrimental impact on the situation. Sell and be rid.

phoebe1989seb

Thanks very much for all your responses guys

I guess the general concensus is to accept the £230k, especially as some are speaking from similar personal experience......and you are most probably correct as we do now all just want to move on and enjoy the time my parents have left as best we/they can.

I s'pose our initial reaction to reject the offer was based upon the fact that a) it's only been on the market a very short time, relatively speaking in today's market and b) after receiving an offer of £250k only last week, this offer seemed a bit poor by comparison.

Anyhoo, ,we'll sleep on it and most likely get back to the agents in the morning to say we'll accept.

McKneff - terribly sorry about your brother - what an utterly cruel disease dementia is

DiscoCat54 - hope your parents achieve a result with their house soon

x

Fire_Fox

Please research all the rights and responsibilities/ duties of Power of Attorney, you may not just be able to write off money like that. It's a while since I read it so I can't recall how strict it is on money management. But the £250K offer may be relevant, you may be wise to hold out longer unless the move is particularly urgent.

phoebe1989seb

Fire_Fox wrote: »

Please research all the rights and responsibilities/ duties of Power of Attorney, you may not just be able to write off money like that. It's a while since I read it so I can't recall how strict it is on money management. But the £250K offer may be relevant, you may be wise to hold out longer unless the move is particularly urgent.

Thanks Fire Fox - will do. So are you saying that were we to accept a lower offer, having previously been in receipt of a higher one that fell through, we may be seen as not doing our duty to my parents insofar as achieving their full entitlement?

How would that work though if we don't accept this offer and all we receive going forward are lower offers and we end up chasing the market down?

Thanks again for any additional advice

Fire_Fox

phoebe1989seb wrote: »

Thanks Fire Fox - will do. So are you saying that were we to accept a lower offer, having previously been in receipt of a higher one that fell through, we may be seen as not doing our duty to my parents insofar as achieving their full entitlement?

How would that work though if we don't accept this offer and all we receive going forward are lower offers and we end up chasing the market down?

Thanks again for any additional advice

Yes perhaps but "it's a while since I read [the duties of a PoA] so I can't recall how strict it is on money management." I would read the duties first, worry about what you do when you know what the situation is. It may be you are absolutely fine if you are not making choices in your own financial interest (which you are clearly not).

phoebe1989seb

Fire_Fox wrote: »

Yes perhaps but "it's a while since I read [the duties of a PoA] so I can't recall how strict it is on money management." I would read the duties first, worry about what you do when you know what the situation is. It may be you are absolutely fine if you are not making choices in your own financial interest (which you are clearly not).

Thanks again FF - will dig out the paperwork and have a read